Legal and policy reform can significantly impact an intervention’s ability to obtain results. MCC should keep channels open with the partner government on any pending policy and legal reforms even if the Compact is not funding those reforms. While some legal and policy changes take significant time and awareness raising before having a noticeable effect, other legal and policy changes can have an immediate impact on behavior. In an effort to stem further land degradation, the Peri-Urban Rangeland Project (PURP) encouraged herders with newly granted private land rights to reduce the size of their herds so as to be within the pasture land’s carrying capacity. However, during PURP implementation herders across Mongolia, including herders in the control and treatment groups, increased their herd sizes and there was no observable difference between the groups. The one exception was in Choibalsan, where there was a significant reverse effect (treatment herder households increased their herd sizes by more sheep units than comparison herder households). In Kharkhorin, the evaluation did find a substantial project impact on yearly pasture load, with herders in the treatment group grazing less sheep units on average per hectare even with the increase in herd size. Local stakeholders and the evaluation noted that the Government of Mongolia’s removal of the per head animal tax likely contributed to herders increasing their herd sizes. However, on the urban side of the Property Rights Project (PRP), the government supported mortgage subsidies that led to increased demand for formal land registration services and mortgages—both of which were expected project outcomes.
PURP was not involved in the elimination of the per-head animal tax or the mortgage subsidies, but they each likely affected PRP’s ability to realize expected outcomes--positively (urban property rights) and negatively (peri-urban rangeland). Considering the impact of legal and policy reforms on land intervention outcomes, even if the Compact intervention is not funding legal and policy reform, MCC may want to stay engaged with the partner government in an open dialogue on upcoming legal and policy reforms in the sector.